Protective coverings, including bandages and eye patches, are widely employed in the medical arts for providing protection for various surface injuries, wounds, lesions, pathologies, and other disease conditions. Such protective coverings are employed for variety of purposes, e.g. the positioning and retention of dressings, the protection of applied medications, the control of sepsis, the provision or removal of moisture, the application of pressure, the protection from physical contact, the blocking of light, etc. In many of these applications, repeated access to the protected area is required for periodic inspections or irrigations of the protected area, for applying fresh medications and fresh dressings, for the addition of moisture, etc. Easy access to the protected area is desirable in such cases. Preferably, such a protective covering should be easily applied and easily and repeatably detached and re-attached without injuring the adjoining tissues which underlie the support for such protective covering.
Non-adhesive bandages and eye patches constitute one class of prior art device which can provide repeated access to the protected area without damaging the tissues which underlie and support such protective coverings. A typical non-adhesive bandage or eye patch includes a band or strap which wraps around a body part so as to position and secure the protective covering over the protected area. Examples of prior art non-adhesive eye patches are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 377,835 (Lyman & Johnson), 3,339,206 (Daley), and 4,473,370 (Weiss). Each of the above patents discloses an eye patch which is positioned by a strap which wraps around the patient's head and which secures the eye patch over the patient's eye. Access to the eye is provided by disengaging the strap and removing the eye patch. Similar non-adhesive bandages are also employed in the prior art for securing protective coverings at other anatomic sites. However, if the patient is physically active, non-adhesive devices can sometimes slip so as to dislocate the protective covering and expose the protected area. Additionally, the inaccessibility or highly flexural nature of various anatomic sites can render the employment of non-adhesive devices impractical. Also, even at anatomic sites which are accessible and minimally flexural, the presence of adjacent pathologies may complicate the attachment of non-adhesive protecive covers. Finally, as compared to the attachment of adhesively bound protective coverings, the attachment of non-adhesive devices is often slower, more cumbersome, and therefore less advantageous. Under such circumstances, the clinician may consider employing an adhesively bound protective covering.
Examples of prior art for adhesively bound protective coverings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,068,863 (Bowman), 3,092,103 (Mower), and 3,952,735 (Wirtschafter et al.). Each of the above patents discloses an adhesive eye patch device having a protective portion and an adhesive portion. The protective portion is centered within the adhesive portion. The protective portion is positioned over the area to be protected while the adhesive portion attaches securely to the patient's skin around the perimeter of the protected area. However, to provide repeated access to the protected area, it is necessary to repeatedly peel off the adhesive portion from the patient's skin. Repeatedly detaching and reattaching the adhesive portion to and from the patient's skin can be painful and damaging to the tissues which underlie and support the adhesive portion. The tissue damage caused by repeatedly detaching the adhesive portion can be lessened by employing adhesives which form a weaker bond between the adhesive portion and the patient's skin. However, employing weakly bonding adhesives reduces the security with which the protective portion is positioned over the protected area and increases the possibility that the device will be accidently dislodged, so as to expose the protected area.
Another related device, an eye lid coupler (e.g. the Donaldson Natural Eyepatch, distributed by Keeler Instruments, Inc., Broomall, PA), serves to couple opposing eye lids so as to secure the eye lids in a closed position. The eye lid coupler has two parts, viz. a first Velcro (TM) pad adhesively attached to one eye lid and second Velcro (TM) pad extending from a strap which is adhesively attached to the opposing eye lid. One of the Velcro (TM) pads is composed of Velcro (TM) hooks and the other is composed of Velcro (TM) fuzz. To secure the opposing eye lids in a closed position, the first Velcro (TM) pad is coupled to the second Velcro (TM) pad. Since the eye lid coupler is adhesively anchored to the opposing eye lids, the eye lids will be secured in a closed position when the device is coupled to itself. To release the eye lids, the two Velcro (TM) pads are uncoupled from one another. The eye lid coupler may be repeatedly secured and released so as to provide easy access to the patient's eye. This easy access to the patient's eye is achieved without detaching the adhesive bonds between the device and the respective eye lids. The eye lid coupler is employed for securing the eye lids in a closed position. The secured eye lids protect the eye as a natural protective covering.
Another related device is the Photo-Mask (Rocky Mountain Medical Corpoartion, Englewood, Colorado). The Photo-Mask is employed for blocking ultra violet light from the eyes of infants receiving photo therapy. The Photo-Mask includes an opaque mask which spans across the infant's eyes. Velcro (TM) tabs extend from both ends of the mask. This mask is secured to the infant by attachment of the Velcro (TM) tabs to a pair of Velcro (TM) base pads, which, in turn, are adhesively attached to the lower portion of the infant's temples. The infant can be repeatedly unmasked and remasked by detaching and re-attaching the Velcro (TM) tabs to and from the Velcro (TM) base pads. The Velcro (TM) base pieces of the Photo-Mask do not encircle or surround the infant's eye.
What is desired is a protective device having an adhesive base which adhesively attaches to the patient's skin, which serves to secure protective coverings such as bandages, moisture chambers, eye patches, and the like, and which can be easily and repeatedly coupled and uncoupled to and from the protective coverings so as to provide easy repeated access to the protected area with minimal pain or injury to the underlying tissues.